EFF to Present Key Telecommunications Surveillance Argument Friday

February 7, 2007

On Friday, February 9, at 2 p.m., theElectronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) will argue that lawsuits against a number of major telecommunications companies for illegally assisting the National Security Agency (NSA) in spying on millions of ordinary Americans should go forward, regardless of the government's attempt to overturn the judge's previous ruling in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The government is appealing U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker's decision not to dismiss Hepting v. AT&T, EFF's case accusing AT&T of collaborating with the NSA in the illegal electronic surveillance. The government has argued that all proceedings before Judge Walker in Hepting -- and in more than 40 other NSA-related cases against additional telecommunications companies transferred to Walker's court -- should be stayed pending the outcome of that appeal.

Also Friday, Judge Walker will hear arguments on whether motions to dismiss should be re-litigated in all of the remaining telecom surveillance cases against Verizon, MCI (now part of Verizon) Sprint, BellSouth (now being absorbed into AT&T and others, or if the Hepting v. AT&T Order should apply to those as well.